While there’s probably several more weeks of PTR testing, we shouldn’t have to wait too long for patch 3.2.2 to arrive. The PTR notes don’t seem to have changed much so far, though there’s always a chance of last minute alterations going through on patch day. Currently, some of the more… ‘interesting’ changes proposed are as follows;
- Feral Druid – Instant
cyclonenature spell after every 5pt finishing move. Not looking forward to this change :/ - BM Hunter – 33% reduction of ‘The Beast Within’ duration but +10% extra damage. Sounds like a debuff as far as PVP goes…
- Arcane Mage – Changes to some spells beginning with “Arcane”, I won’t pretend to know what this will mean to PVP but I can’t imagine it will make an arcane mage more troublesome than a frost mage.
- Prot Palas – Slight reduced survivability and an extra 10sec CD on their stun.
- Elemental Shaman – The benefit from the current Flame Shock glyph has been added to the unglyphed spell. They also get even more spell damage bonus for their Lava Burst and Lightning spells (ouch).
- Death Knights – Increased CD on their pet’s stun.
- Rogues – Fan of Knives damage reduced by 30%, no longer able to silence when talented.
Bonus damage from AP increased by 10% for a 5pt Envenom (2% per combo point)
3/3 Master Poisoner will prevent Envenom from removing Deadly Poison
What I really want to see is how this affects the typical ‘cookie cutter’ rogue spec of 41/5/25. We’re already getting some interesting variants showing up in S7 (and apparently back in S6 on the Koreans servers), so I’m guessing these two changes are going to have a big effect on what’s considered a ’standard’ mutilate PVP build.
The main drawback with this nice envenom buff is, “where do we get those 3 extra points for Master Poisoner from?”. Annoyingly the talent is positioned on the same tier as mutilate, so we can’t reallocate points spent in the assassination tree. Realistically there are only two possible options; losing points in Dual Wield Specialization, or dropping Heightened Senses.
Personally I’ll drop Heightened Senses* (I can always use Hyper-vision Goggles for those rare times we queue vs rogues all night) and play with 4/5 in DWS – however if rogue teams do start to become a pain (and possibly even ferals once they get instant cyclones), I guess 2/5 DWS wouldn’t be too much of a sacrifice to make.
Quite an interesting patch really, with a lot of potential for changing what has become quite a stagnant class!
* I have two rogues – my second one PVPs as 51/6/14, and in all honesty it’s not too much of a problem playing without Heightened Senses.
Hey bro, nice blog youve been running here. Ive been reading since a month ago, good work.
Just a lil insight on the Hyper-vision Goggles. Since 2 patches ago when they nerf engineering, that extra stealth from the goggles dont apply anymore. Blizzard saw it as and edge over other profession in PVP. Like wise with the nitro boosts no longer be able to use them in Arena. Plus even if the goggles did work, you couldnt never compare it to Hightened Senses which is way more reliable. If you drop hightened senses I can guarantee you will have problems with every rogue team out there in Arena not BGs. Grats again, take care.
Heya, yep they removed detection from the epic WotLK goggles but the blue ones from TBC still have the detection on them. They did seem ok in 2v2, but I’m losing faith in them. Against low-rated teams they worked wonders, but against good rogues last night they seemed to constantly run out (only a 15sec buff). Oh, and they have terrible stats as well
Take care and GL!
Hoped for some additional days until the patch went live to get the darn broodmother to drop my t2 helmet. Well yeah 3.2.2 is now live and I have no t2. :’(
Ahh sorry to hear that, it sucks there’s no way to access the old version of that instance :/ Yeah I was expecting 3.2.2 to be in November, to tie in with the 5yr anniversary.
Yeah thought that too but well, at least the new helmets look like the old t2 ones even if it’s not t2.